Joggling at the Track

After a great track workout yesterday evening with the UTTC Masters Track Club, I did a little joggling at Varsity Stadium. This track is pure magic.

Joggling: The Movie

I found this random, funny trailer for "Joggling: The Movie," by accomplished juggler Pete Ucciferro:



which is the perfect segue to announce that Benjamin Fingerhut's documentary, "Breaking and Entering," has been released on iTunes, Netflix and Amazon. It features some mind-blowing joggling footage of my joggling duel with Zach Warren at the Salt Lake City Marathon. Get the details HERE. And watch the trailer here:

New York Times: 3 Beanbags and 26.2 Miles

New York Times Joggling Article

New York Times reporter Sara Beck put together an excellent piece on 67-year-old joggler Jack Hirschowitz, who will be joggling his fifth New York City Marathon on Nov. 4. I was quoted a few times in it, calling joggling "a fringe sport for the odd lunatic." Lunatics in a good way, of course. 

Beck describes the rules of joggling and sums up quite succinctly the types of competitions: "Records have been set with five balls. Clubs are possible, but awkward. Knives are discouraged. Hurdling should be left to the experts."

I agree that joggling knives isn't advisable in a marathon, but on a treadmill is fine, right Tyler Wishau?

Zen and the Art of Joggling

Oh, the intensity of running 42.195K while tossing and catching beanbags 32,000 times. Photo courtesy of the Trapline Marathon.

Trapline Marathon: 1st Joggler and 1st Overall

The Trapline Marathon is no ordinary race. The starters' gun is a trappers' rifle (that was so loud we all froze at the line for a second of stunned silence before making our way forward), the start-line posts are made out of wooden snowshoes, there was a moose on the race course and moose stew served after the finish (a different moose, I was told by race organizers), along with a smorgasbord of other local delicacies.

The people in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador (how's that for a lengthy place name?) welcomed this wacky joggler with open arms and a good sense of humour and didn't even get mad at me when I won the marathon overall while juggling, in a time of 2 hours, 59 minutes and 32 seconds, and also set a course record.

I can say with near-certainty that this marks the first time anyone has won a marathon while juggling. I, of course, think this is pretty cool, however, the rest of the runners behind me might think otherwise. But I salute all of the runners in the full marathon, half-marathon and 10K at this spectacular race. And thank you to the hawk that flew half a foot in front of my face near the halfway mark for not making off with one of my balls. I salute you, too.

(Images courtesy of the Trapline Marathon)

The Bannister of Beer

The beer mile is getting a lot of press now that American Olympian Nick Symmonds is going for the world record. A video from TMZ shows Symmonds running a 5:15, which is very close to Canadian Jim Finlayson's world record of 5:09.
When I was the editor of Canadian Running, I assigned a feature article to Finlayson so he could tell the story of his record, and of his quest to break the magical 5-minute beer mile barrier. Here it is, one of my all-time favourite features in CRM, "The Bannister of Beer":

Next up for me: the joggling beer mile. Wonder what the record is for that one?

Matt Feldman Destroys 5-Ball Joggling 1-Mile Record

They say learning how to juggle five balls is 10 times harder than juggling three. When it comes to joggling with five, I'd say it's about 60 times more difficult than the traditional three-ball joggle.

Considering that, Matt Feldman's recent world record for the five-ball joggling mile of 6:33 is nothing short of astounding. Even better, there's a good video of it, so you can see how fluid his form is with the five-ball pattern on the run. Feldman makes it look easy, but trust me as one who has tried, this is reedonkulous skill.

Would this not be an entertaining Olympic event? Imagine a dozen jogglers and 100 balls flying around the track in an Olympic five-ball 1500m joggling final!

 

Wacky Sporting Champions

Guinness World Records has a new ebook dedicated to "Wacky Sporting Champions," including the basketball spinner from Benjamin Fingerhut's documentary, Breaking and Entering. I wonder if any jogglers made it in there?

Triathlon Juggler Joe Salter is Huge in Korea

Joe Salter shocked the world – even the hard-to-shock joggling world – when he managed to juggle his way through a triathlon in May. Since then, his video has gone somewhat viral (not quite Walk Off the Earth viral, but pretty good for jogging vid) and he's made an appearance on Good Morning America. Now a Korean TV show is apparently trying to convince him to swuggle (swim and juggle) across the Han River, which is about 1.7km across.

Joggling the Trapline Marathon in October

Ah, Labrador! That beautiful territory northwest of Newfoundland will soon get what it's been waiting for all of these years (they just didn't know it): joggling! On Oct. 7, 2012, I'm coming to town to joggle the Trapline Marathon. I've never been to Labrador and this looks like a great event that showcases Canada's trading frontier. The marathon route follows a point-to-point course along an old trappers trade route at the mouth of the Churchill River, running from the settlement of North West River (pop. 553) to Happy Valley - Goose Bay (pop. 7,552). And as far as I'm concerned, any marathon that finishes in Happy Valley has to be a good one.

I'll be speaking at the expo the day before the race and giving some joggling tutorials, because really, if you don't know how to joggle, what is the point of life? Check out the details at www.traplinemarathon.com and watch the super-geeky video of me above.

This will be my seventh joggling marathon and unlike most of the others, I won't be going for a Guinness World Record, though I am hoping to run a fast time. It got me thinking that I never actually wrote down all the races I've joggled, so here's a list of the big ones:

1. The Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon (three times, and a world record each time – I like this race)
2. The Boston Marathon (in the 2006 joggling marathon duel with Zach Warren, which I lost)
3. The Salt Lake City Marathon (another duel with Zach, which I won)
4. The Royal Victoria Marathon (I had fun at this one)
5. The Cayman Islands Half-Marathon (ridiculously hot race)
6. The World's Best 10K (Puerto Rico)
7. The Rock and Ice Ultra (Northwest Territories, but OK, I only joggled for about 100 metres)
8. The Montreal Half-Marathon (unofficial half-marathon world record)
9. The Burlington Half-Marathon (soon-to-be official world record)
10. The Around the Bay 30K (unofficial 30K world record)
11. A bunch of other local races  

I'm sure Trapline will be a blast. I might even be so bold as to predict that I will become the first person to ever joggle in the region.

Swuggling Video by Joe Salter

Swuggler, joggler and cycluggler (or buggler? – no, that sounds bad) Joe Salter is training to become the first person to juggle his way through a triathlon. Check out his swuggling training in a pool (with tricks!).

Joggling Bladder

(Image courtesy of Sportszonephotography.ca)

I got the hat-cam hooked up a few minutes before the start of the Chilly Half-Marathon. Michael from vcardtv.com turned it on and the tape was going to be rolling until after I finished. That's when I realized I really needed to pee, but there was no time before the start. During the race, I tried to survey the area for a porta-potty or some woods to duck into, but it's hard to look around while you're joggling. Plus, imagine the surprise of the Guinness World Records judges watching the footage to certify the record, when all of the sudden I duck off into the bushes and – whoa, those aren't juggling balls! Maybe I'd get disqualified? So I ran on, with my bladder joggling for an hour and 24 minutes and 33 seconds.

The Joggler-Cam!

This is what I see when I'm joggling. The video of the Chilly Half-Marathon (below) shows a few clips from the "Joggler-Cam" (and a bit where I teach the mayor of Burlington how to juggle).

Bob Evans Lowers 5K Joggling Record to 16:42

Check out Bob Evans crushing his own world record for the joggling 5K at the Super Kids Sunday event in Long Beach, California. Oh, and he won the race outright. Bob's wife Trish also joggled a spectacular 21:02, not far off her own women's world record of (I think) 20:31. After the race, the couple put on a juggling the unicycling show.

Chilly-Half Marathon 'Official' Joggling Record: 1:24:33

(Image courtesy of Michelle from The236.net blog – note how the fire hydrant and mailbox match my outfit)

Yes, that weird thing on my head there is a camera. I think I set a precedent for the first ever joggling race footage with a head-cam. The videographer told me the footage turned out well, so we'll see. I ended up joggling the Chilly Half-Marathon in Burlington, Ontario, on Sunday, in 1:24:33, which was 44 seconds slower than my best joggling half from Montreal a few years ago. I never claimed that one through Guinness World Records, though, because I didn't have the independent witnesses and video footage that they require to certify it. This time I'll have first-person video of the whole thing, plus witnesses, so if it all pans out, 1:24:33 will be the new official Guinness World Record for the fastest time to run a half-marathon while joggling three objects.

It was great to jump back into the ridiculous world of joggling, as I've been doing mostly "regular" running races lately. Some things I heard along the route:

• "Show-off!" (the most popular among the 5K runners who were passing by in the opposite direction – and might I add that this is not a very motivating thing to hear when you're struggling along trying to race the thing while juggling, with a camera on your head, and in fact, why don't you just punch me in the stomach while you're at it)
• "You're my hero!" (now that's more like it)
• "Don't drop a ball!" (thanks, thanks a lot)
• "I heard yoo speak at the pasta dinner last night, and you're right, I don't want to get beaten by a joggler!" (my favourite line of the day, by a guy running past me, referencing a line from my dinner talk about how other runners hate getting passed by me when I'm joggling)

Conditions overall were pretty good for the race. My hands were freezing off in the first 2K and I dropped a couple of times because my fingers were numb. Winds were gusting for the last 7K or so and my lightweight "racing" beanbags got blown out of reach a bunch of times. I had another seven or eight drops on the way back, which really screwed up my rhythm and focus. The head-cam was actually heavier than I expected, but I don't think it slowed me down too much. I'll post the highlights (if there are any) on YouTube when I get the footage.

Joggling the Chilly Half-Marathon

(Photo: Jamie Lynch)

Can I break my half-marathon joggling record of 1:23:49 at the Chilly Half in Burlington, Ontario, this Sunday? I certainly not as well prepared as I was for the Montreal Half-Marathon in 2009, but I did lose a good chunk of time in that race when I dropped a ball at the start, so it's still possible. I'll probably pace for a 1:20 and see what happens. This is the course where I set my half-marathon PB of 1:11:58 – good karma.

Joggling Records List

(Image courtesy of STWM Staff)

Recordholders.org has a really cool historical list of all the joggling records HERE. It's funny to see how many times Zach Warren and I went back and forth on the marathon record. And it's not over yet – Zach has plans to try to break it this year. If he succeeds, would I have a go at it? Maybe, if I can negotiate a multi-hundred-dollar endorsement deal with Stride Gum, who gave me a year's supply of tasty and long-lasting gum after I set my last record.

There are quite a few astounding records in that list. including Mike Hout's 20.2 second backwards joggling 100m and Will Howard's 4:42 mile.

I'm in Runner's World - again!

Another appearance in Runner's World in the Feb. 2012 issue, Human Race section, HERE.